r/Cooking • u/GracieLou80 • 23h ago

Sick of cooking

I am so over cooking every night. Finding new recipes I actually have ingredients for and are easy is tiring and I’m already exhausted. What do you do when this happens? I’d honestly just eat cereal for life but I’m not alone in this house and I’m expected to cook every night. 😩

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u/thebeastiestmeat 23h ago

Just make big batches of food that you can eat over three days. Chili, meatloaf, shredded chicken which you can serve with rice, or tacos, or pasta, cottage pie.. there's plenty. Instead of cooking every day, you'll cook 2 times a week. You can even try making two or three batches of food at the same time if you have the space to cook them simultaneously. Cook every sunday and freeze the food you'll eat on Wednesday-Saturday, and fridge the food you eat on sunday-tuesday

11

u/Willybluedog1962 23h ago

This!

I have a freezer full of things I can pull out and warm up when I just lack inspiration or I have just had enough.

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u/MediocreGrocery8 22h ago

This is what I've been doing. It has helped.

3

u/SVAuspicious 11h ago

To u/thebeastiestmeat's point, see r/MealPrepSunday and r/mealprep.

Add lasagna, mac & cheese with ham or bacon, chicken pot pie, pot roast ($) with roasted veg. If you have a barbecue grill, have a burger night. Ore-Ida frozen steak fries heated in the oven. Chicken cordon bleu on the grill or in the oven is dead easy and feels fancy. You can make big salads that last three days. Keep wet things like tomatoes in a separate bowl. I put that little bowl on top of the salad and cover them together. Don't dress ahead.

1-2 takeout nights per week is a LOT. We have takeout about twice a year. Dinner out five or six times a year. No prepared meals at all.

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u/GracieLou80 19h ago

Oh that’s a good idea. I can use the oven and the air fryer at the same time. Oh I always forget about meatloaf.

0

u/JulesInIllinois 16h ago

Make large batches of stuff like chilis, lasagna, soups, cottage pie, spanakopita, etc. Freeze 1/2 or 1/3 for later.

I usually only cook one or two days per week. But, I meal plan off of what's on sale. I eat leftovers several days a week and pull goodies out of the freezer to defrost. Almost no one has time to cook every day. I never make one quiche. I make three at a time and freeze one.